


Rings

by Aria_Faye



Series: Stranger than Fiction [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Online Dating, Chatting & Messaging, Engagement, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Rings, based on actual events, just normal people doing normal people things, nobody skates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 01:29:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17736437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aria_Faye/pseuds/Aria_Faye
Summary: Victor gets distracted looking at rings. Again.





	Rings

**Author's Note:**

> This is very heavily inspired by true events. Meaning that I essentially am transcribing something that happened to me this morning into a fic because my lovah said it was too good to pass up. This is my actual life. Real events. Actual conversations. This happened about twelve hours ago. I just changed the names.
> 
> Since this seems to happen a lot in my life, I think I may make a series of oneshots in this same verse. Like...as they happen. Just for grins. Real life is stranger than fiction, I suppose. So enjoy this little thing in the knowledge that, somewhere out there, someone really lived it. XD

It wasn’t even that early when Victor’s alarm rang, but he still groaned as he dug his phone out from the depths of his bed. Nine o’clock. The sun was already up at least, which was more than could be said for most days. He thumbed his alarm off and lay there for a second, just breathing and processing the fact that he was awake. And regretting the late night before.

When he finally felt alive enough to check the notifications on his phone, he saw that, on the other side of the world, Yuuri had apparently already woken up. He smiled at the characters that he knew spelled out ‘good morning’ and the red heart emoji before typing back his reply:

<<Доброе утро. <3

Immediately, Yuuri sent a cute puppy gif, followed by:

>>Did you sleep ok?

<<Yeah, but I’m really tired.

<<Didn’t fall asleep till around 2.

Victor let his head sink into the pillow and his eyes drift closed for just a second.

>>I’m a bad influence.

With a huff, Victor replied: ‘Nah. I got distracted.’

>>Oh?

<<Yeah.

>>Doing what?

At this, Victor definitely hesitated. He and Yuuri hadn’t been together very long—he knew that. But he hadn’t been able to help himself, and…well…being with Yuuri just felt so _right_ , and he had been certain for a long time…

<<Thinking about rings.

He sent the message before he could stop himself, letting it fly into the cyberspace between them and hoping that Yuuri would…what? Ignore it? Delete it? Hell, Victor didn’t even know. Absently, he brought up the google search from the night before: _gold rings_. He continued scrolling where he’d left off, casually letting his eyes slip over everything until they caught on something interesting enough to bookmark.

Yuuri’s response pinged in. A startled, blushy emoji, and nothing more. Victor huffed a laugh.

>>For us??

Victor smiled.

<<Yes.

<<I had an idea for a really beautiful custom job…but, in the end, I decided it was too much me and not enough you. It needs to be you if it’s gonna be yours.

It wasn’t like this was a new conversation topic between the two of them. They talked very often about it. How Victor would to propose, how Yuuri would say yes, how they’d elope somewhere and have a marvelously anticlimactic non-wedding before leaving for the most decadent honeymoon in existence… Victor had been looking at rings for two months. The only reason he hadn’t bought one yet to hide along with all the other things that he had hoarded to give to Yuuri was…unfortunately, important:

They hadn’t met yet.

That was the problem with falling in love with someone you met online.

Sure, they video chatted regularly and messaged all the time—even sent each other short little voice clips in Instagram—but they still had never even been on the same continent, much less in the same room. And, very rationally, they had agreed that nobody would propose officially to anybody until they had finally met in person. Spent some time together. And _then_ , unless something went heinously wrong upon their meeting, their getting married was essentially a foregone conclusion and Victor could justify getting a ring for Yuuri’s finger. But until then, actually _buying_ rings was off-limits. Still…it didn’t exactly hurt to look. Strictly for ideas. So Victor kept scrolling and bookmarking.

‘You know I’d wear any ring you gave me,’ Yuuri replied with the same blushy emoji as before.

<<I know, but it has to be right.

>>Okay. <3

<<I think I know what I want for you. Aesthetically speaking. But I want to see your hands and spend some time with you in person before I solidify that.

>> XO I hope I can visit you soon.

Victor lay back on his bed and sighed. Yes, that was the hope. That they would be able to visit soon. One way or another. But so far, circumstances had prevented it. Neither of them were exactly rich, and international travel was not exactly cheap.

<< I hope so too, angel.

He flipped back to the google search he’d brought up earlier and kept scrolling. After page after page of bland, gold rings, he revised his search. _Gold engagement rings._ It was a mistake. Everything here was excessively feminine, full of giant diamonds and completely impractical.

<< I keep thinking about you and what kind of ring you would look good wearing, and I keep getting caught between two extremes of style. XD I’ve been having this struggle for a long time.

It wasn’t that he intended to keep messaging Yuuri about the ring search. It was more that he just needed an outlet. Someone to talk to who was already on board with the whole thing. He never liked having to explain too much to outsiders. They shut down pretty much as soon as they learned that he and Yuuri had only been together for four months. And that they had never met in person. But screw them, because none of them knew Yuuri, and none of them were Victor. It wasn’t like they knew what it felt like. _Victor_ hadn’t even known that love could feel this way—brutally strong, almost predestined; less about _meeting_ and more about _finding_. Nobody understood how it felt to feel your soul reach out across hundreds of kilometers, straining to touch another soul, far more familiar than it had any right to be, on the other side of the world. So Victor talked to Yuuri about it, because Yuuri was the only one who _did_ understand.

<< Which is why I’m probably going to have something made custom. And why I’ll want to spend time with you in person before doing anything. One thing is definitely for sure though: I won’t be getting you a normal engagement ring. I keep looking at them, and they’re all just…too much. Not you at all.

>> Haha okay baby. I trust you. <3

<< I really shouldn’t be talking about it so much. You’re not going to be surprised at all. XD

>> Then stop. XD Give me time to forget.

<< You’re going to forget?? About this??

>> Make me forget. :P

<< How?

>> Distract me with other things!! Anything!!

>> Besides, it’s not like you’re going to propose tomorrow.

<< I know!! But I like to look. Keep my options open.

<<BUT ANYWAY

<< HOW ABOUT THAT WEATHER

<< XD

Victor laughed to himself. Rubbed a hand over his face. He’d stop obsessing over engagement rings at the exact moment that he slid one onto Yuuri’s finger, and no sooner. At this rate, it would be the least exciting proposal in history. Normally, he was so much better with keeping secrets. Apparently all that went away when his heart was involved.

>> I love you so much. <3

>> Can’t wait to be your husband.

He read it twice. Actually squealed the second time. Like a child.

<< I can’t wait to be yours either!

He followed this with about thirty kissy emojis.

Yuuri sent back a gif of two puppies booping noses and told him to get up already. So he did. But not before navigating back to the engagement ring google search.

It took serious effort not to get side-tracked between every stage of getting dressed by his phone. But that was how he had ended up staying up much, _much_ later than usual the night before, so he pulled his clothes on and brushed his teeth. Debated combing the bedhead out of his hair before deciding that it actually looked better like this and leaving it alone. He was halfway through cooking breakfast when he unlocked his screen again.

God. How could something be so gaudy and so unexciting at the same time??

When he finally got frustrated, he opened the message app to complain to Yuuri like it was second nature. And it _had_ become second nature. He and Yuuri talked about everything. They both complained. Frequently. But Yuuri wanted him to stop talking about it so as not to completely ruin the surprise. So he thumbed over to a different message app and pulled up Chris’ thread.

<< Godddddd why are engagement rings all so boring???

He threw his phone onto the counter and finished assembling his breakfast. Halfway through pouring a cup of tea to go with it, his phone started to ring.

It must have been pretty early still in Switzerland, but Chris’ name and photo lit up the screen.

Victor took the call. “Hey Chris! What’s up?”

“Why are you looking at engagement rings?”

Victor almost choked on his tea. “Um…I’ve been looking for a while?” he said instead. And Chris knew this. Back before Victor’s birthday, they’d talked about Yuuri. Victor remembered distinctly mentioning that, yeah it was crazy, but he was casually keeping his eyes open for rings.

“Victor.” Chris said sternly from across the world, “I love you. And I like him. But for the love of god, _meet first._ ”

Victor blinked. “No, I am! We are! I just…I’m just looking. I won’t do anything yet, I promise!”

Somehow, in his silence, Chris sounded skeptical.

“I’m not going to do anything stupid!” Victor tried again. “I just got really excited last night when I remembered that you could get things like wooden rings and carbon fiber rings! I’m just window shopping; I promise.”

Finally, Chris sighed. Victor could almost hear him massaging his temples as he said, “You know you don’t have to get an _engagement_ ring, right? Any ring could function as an engagement ring.”

“Yeah, I know,” Victor replied. “I just want something special, you know?”

“You’ll find it,” Chris reassured.

“Yeah.”

“You’ve got time.”

Victor sighed. “Yeah.”

They stayed quiet for a moment. Then, Chris said, “You good?”

Victor smiled. “Yeah. I’m good. Go back to sleep, Chris.”

Chris laughed a bit, like he didn’t believe Victor for a second. Like Victor was a puppy that couldn’t be trusted in a room full of groceries. “Whatever you say. Bye Vic.”

“Bye.” Victor smiled back.

He waited exactly two seconds before messaging Yuuri about it, resigned to being the actual worst at not talking about rings. Yuuri replied with an all-caps keyboard smash, and Victor loved him with all his heart.


End file.
